Curling Ribbon Celebration!

Instructables contests are the perfect creative muse. The topics inspire you to get out of your comfort zone. The overview provides a starting point and some general guidance and a timeline. It is easy not to create, laundry, dirty dishes, lawn mowing are the enemies of making, but a deadline defines the creative period and helps me to find time to do it.

However, the timing of the announcement of the string and rope contest was fabulous, because I had just bought miles and miles of balloon string, also known as curling ribbon. During the going out of business sale at Party City, I bought eight gigantic spools of ribbon (think the size of a holiday popcorn tin at Costco, okay maybe bigger). My head was spinning with ideas. Curling ribbon is a celebration on a spool, so I decided to make a kinetic piece that celebrated family.

Balloon string (curling ribbon), multiple colors

IKEA- SOLVINDEN, LED string light with 12 lights, outdoor/battery operated white, $11.99

Paper lantern, 8 inches (found in party decorations)

Mobile frame -recycled or built (Simple Mobiles Illustrate Engineering in Art,By prof_jellis in LivingEducation and Make a Mobile Art Project, By moose in DesignArt) great instructables

Air dry clay (playdough)

Optional- stand

Scissors, acrylic paint, chopsticks, parchment paper, drywall anchors, card stock/party hats, tape, glue

You will need lots of 6 inch (ish) pieces of ribbon. To make cutting quicker, wrap the ribbon around something that is about 6 inches wide. I used a scrap of pegboard, but a piece of cardboard or a loaf pan … would also work. Cut both sides to make the ribbon pieces. Then curl the ribbon. In How to Wrap a Classy Package, By craft knowitall in CraftGift Wrapping , Step 8 explains a great way to curl ribbon. Curling ribbon takes time, but it's a fun, relaxing activity for a group of friends.

Open the larger lantern and remove the lanterns from the light string. ( If you don’t want a mobile, you could put the completed fish back on the light string) Paint each lantern to match the colors of the ribbon, then allow the lanterns to dry completely. For the larger fish, paint the colors of the final design, as well

Play dough air dry clay starts to dry very quickly, so plan ahead. For the eyes, I used ⅛ teaspoon to mold the shape in white, then flatten a small ball of black for the pupil. For the fins and tails, I pinched them into shape, then pressed them over chopsticks to create a wavy texture. The lips start as a ball and after shaping, I used a pencil to form the upper and lower lips. Depending on the humidity and the thickness, the clay may require 24 hours to dry completely.

Using super glue, attach the lips to a paper lantern, remember the openings of the lantern should be oriented toward the floor and ceiling. Curls can be attached in several ways; a drop of glue then place a curl, paint a small section of the lantern and press into a pile of curls, cover a section of the lantern then pat curls into place. A combination of pressing and patting was the quickest, then single curls were added as needed to fill in any spaces.

Once the fins and tails are dry, paint a design on each, because the small fish are a single color, I added colorful designs such as spots and lines to give each fish more personality. Add the eyes, fins and tail with super glue. It may be necessary to remove a curl for correct placement.

What is a celebration without party hats and kazoos, okay technically they are modeled after noise makers but kazoo is much more fun to say. For the hats, if you have leftover party hats, just trim off the tip and add a tiny pompom or streamer. Or make a cardstock cone and decorate, if you are a perfectionist Quarantine Birthday Party HatsBy cbayley in CraftParties & Weddings has a template for perfect party hats. For the “kazoo, cut eight 2 inch strips of silver curling ribbon, place four strips on a piece of double sided tape, wrap around the drywall anchor, add the additional four strips and secure with a small zip tie. Tightly curl a small piece of ribbon as the blowout and attach with glue. Add hats and kazoos to the fish, for balance purposes I had four fish with hats and four fish with kazoos.

Snip, snip, pat. Each fish was given a final once over and any stray ribbons were trimmed and wild curls were patted into place

Adding the fish to the mobile is both fun and challenging. I thought about weighing each fish to figure out the placement, but decided trial and error was more fun. Surprisingly, all the fish were able to balance each other! The paper lanterns are designed to hang, so I used tiny cotter pins from another project, but hair pins or paperclips would also work. Originally, the larger fish was going to hang from the center, but I realized that securing it to the ceiling wound limit where it could be displayed, so I placed it on a stand.

The final project is a joyful celebration. It is a colorful piece of kinetic art that reminds me of a family reunion at the beach. It turned out that I only use a small, very small amount of my curling ribbon, so I am hoping that Instructables will announce a contest to create an animal- I am thinking about life size sheep! I hope that this inspires you to investigate the Instrucable contests and excites you to make something.